Here at Langley, Air Force analysts sit for hours at a stretch in a vast room that is illuminated only by bank after bank of monitors. The drones are piloted elsewhere, often at a base in Nevada, but the video arrives here. The video is analysed and fused with other types of intelligence, such as still photos or communications intercepts.

Military analysts work hand in hand with the Central Intelligence Agency (also based out of Langley) to develop leads on potential targets. The problem is that current personnel can’t keep up with incoming information.

Air Force officials told Michaels that though they met with ESPN, no “major technological breakthroughs occurred.” It was more about exchanging expertise, they said.

It’s also not the first, nor the last time one would imagine, that military surveillance programs have bled into the domestic side of life. On Monday, Trevor Hughes of the Colorodoan reported that a local county Sheriff had used National Guard helicopters to surveill regional marijuana growers in an attempt to gather intelligence on potential law breakers.